Writing by Brian Matthews. Brian Matthews co-founded Cultivation Capital. Brian has a passion for mentoring and developing start-up founders. He is an investor and mentor at Capital Innovators and a founder of River City Internet Group. Brian is a serial entrepreneur having co-founded and assisted in the sale of the following technology companies: Primary Network to Mpower Communications in 2000, Primary Webworks to Perficient in 2001, CDM Fantasy Sports to Liberty Media in 2006, and IntraISP to Clearwire Communications in 2007. In addition to his role at Cultivation Capital, Brian serves on the boards of LockerDome, Hatchbuck, TopOPPS, Tunespeak, Aisle411, Globalhack, and the Friends of T-REX. Brian is also a General Partner in the SixThirty FinTech Accelerator. Brian has a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the Missouri University of Science and Technology and worked at McDonnell Douglas for 12 years before beginning his entrepreneurial career in 1993.

2016 was the best year for launching new venture funds in St. Louis history. RiverVest, Cultivation Capital, and Lewis and Clark each raised new funds for the second consecutive year. Both SixThirty and The Yield Lab launched new accelerators in 2016.

Notable numbers include:

• $218 million raised by 8 venture funds
• $133 million was raised by bioscience and plant science funds
• $85 million raised by software tech funds

The bioscience and plant science funds are:

• $40 million by Cultivation Capital Life Science Fund II
• $15 million by RiverVest Archer Bioscience Seed Fund (Read story)
• $2 million by Skandalaris/WashU Seed Fund (Read story)
• $20 million by Lewis & Clark Plant Science Fund (Read story)
• $55 million by RiverVest 3×5 Fund II
• $1 million by The Yield Lab – Ireland (Read story)

The software technology funds are:

• $10 million by SixThirty Cyber Security Accelerator Fund (Read story)
• $75 million by Cultivation Capital FinTech Fund

In 2015 new venture funds raised a total of $237 million:

• $80 million by RiverVest Life Science Fund
• $104 million by Lewis and Clark Venture Fund I
• $40 million by Cultivation Capital Tech Fund II
• $5 million by The Yield Lab – St. Louis
• $3 million by Prosper Women Entrepreneur Startup Accelerator
• $5 million Stadia Ventures – Sports Accelerator

Since 2012 St. Louis venture funds have launched 11 new funds and seven new accelerators and have raised over $500 million.